Warning: sugary drinks are a health threat

Friday Jan 15th, 2016

In response to The Sun's editorial, "Curbing sugary drinks in Baltimore" (Jan. 12), what I think is so striking about City Councilman Nick Mosby's proposed sugar-sweetened beverage warning label legislation is that it's actually the exact right place at the exact right time to do the right thing for Baltimore's children.

This is the exact right place. Baltimore has been disproportionately hit by the obesity epidemic in which one in four children consume one or more sugar-sweetened beverages every day. What makes Baltimore the perfect place to implement a warning label on sugar-sweetened beverages is that we have world-renowned researchers who have shown that these types of interventions work right here in our city. Dr. Sara Bleich and her team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looked at thousands of sugar sweetened beverage sales in Baltimore stores after implementing an educational calorie sign, which reduced consumption by nearly half for low-income black adolescents.

Read more at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-warnings-l...

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